Essential Project Management Skills Every PM Needs to Succeed

Adriana Girdler

Do you have these five essential project management skills? Wondering what the most important project management skills are? Here are some skills you need to …

Do you have these five essential project management skills?

Wondering what the most important project management skills are? Here are some skills you need to know about, and focus on developing, if you want to be a successful project manager.

1 – Being comfortable saying no

Project management is NOT all about saying yes. It’s easy to say ‘yes’ and commit to everything that others ask you to take on.

But being a really good project manager involves knowing when to say, ‘no.’ This is especially important when it comes to senior management asking you for things that are going to negatively impact your project!

2 – Being able to motivate people

When you’re a project manager, nobody directly reports into you.

Everyone on your project team reports into direct managers and they have tons of other tasks and deliverables they need to get done, including their tasks and activities on your project.

In a perfect world, people would just get their work done because they have to get it done. But the reality is, there are always tons of competing priorities on everyone’s to-do lists.

If you make your project fun and you properly motivate your team, they’ll WANT to work on your project. It brings fun and lightness to work.

More skills + how to improve them

There’s so much more to focus on than just these two skills. That’s why I made a YouTube video on a few more skills you’ll want to think about as well as ways to improve them.

Head over to my channel with me to continue this conversation! See you there!

I really hope that you found this helpful – and if you did, it would mean so much to me if you would share it on your social media.

Meanwhile, if you really are committed to mastering your next project, do consider taking my SLAY Project Management online course where I show you step-by-step how to successfully manage a project, plus you get access to every template you will need, along with detailed video instructions on how to fill them out.

-Adriana

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Adriana Girdler is a project manager, productivity specialist, entrepreneur, professional speaker, facilitator, visioning wizard, and author. As President of CornerStone Dynamics, Adriana is one of Canada’s prominent business productivity and project management specialists—helping both individuals and businesses do what they do, only better. She is a certified master black belt lean six sigma with over 20 years’ experience improving how companies work.

She also holds both PMP (project management professional) and CET (certified engineering technologist) designations. She’s a Tedx speaker, as well as a HuffPost and Thrive Global contributor. She has been interviewed on Global, CBC, CTV, CHCH, 680News Radio, Newstalk 1010, Sirius XM and published in the Globe and Mail and numerous industry magazines. WANT ADRIANA'S FREE ONLINE TRAINING? In 45 min, learn Adriana's 5 project management secrets she use on EVERY project. Sign up for the Free Webinar here: THE FAB FIVE FUNDAMENTALS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

SLAY Project Management

Online Course

5 Sections and 24 step-by-step HOW TO Videos! The only 5-hour on-line course that teaches you the PRACTICAL side of project management. This course will guide you step-by-step on HOW to successfully run a project and provides you with all the templates and tips you need to be successful.

Fab 5 Fundamentals

Free Training

Are you striving for successful projects, but get overwhelmed figuring out what elements of project management to focus on for the best results? In the Fab Five Fundamentals of Project Management, you’ll learn the five things you need to do on EVERY project to bring it to success.

Why Projects Fail?

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If you're new to projects or need a refresher, here's a guide of all the things I learned during my journey. Project success is about knowing how to navigate and stay clear of roadblocks, issues and problems. Understand the top 10 reasons why projects fail and how to avoid them.

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